Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A33470
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The grand expedient for suppressing popery examined, or, The project of exclusion proved to be contrary to reason and religion by Robert Clipsham.
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Clipsham, Robert.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing C4717; ESTC R27263
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164,018
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330
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Royal Throne without a Rival a Rival did I say nay a most imperious Master that is very hard to please and yet if he be not pleased and humour'd in all things 't is a thousand to one but he will jostle him out of it and lay his Honour in the dust A Church in which he can Exercise but a part and that the meanest and most ignoble part of his Authority that only which concerns the Civil Polity and Rights for he may not meddle with Religion nor the Ministers of it who are exempt from his Jurisdiction and Sworn Vassals to his Superiour and as such ready to revenge the Injuries and Affronts the Prince offers to their great Masters if he dares be so rash and unadvised as to be guilty of any but of that afterwards A Church in which he that is Gods Image and Representative less only then God must sneak and truckle Meanly to an Upstart and Usurper a meteor drawn from the Earth and raised on high by Pride Avarice and Cruelty What Temptation then could his Royal Highness who is a wise Prince of a brave and generous Spirit and so exceeding tender of his Honour that he must needs in the highest manner resent the least Violation of his Right all diminution or lessening of his Power all invasion and usurpation of the Priviledges and Prerogatives belonging to it both by Divine and Humane Right if the Crown should descend to him What Temptation I say could such a Prince have to joyn himself to a Church in which he shall be so degraded and dishonour'd be a Vassal Underling to one that unjustly insolently and prophanely exalts himself above all that is called God that is all the Kings of the Earth Especially if we consider that the Church he forsakes or goes from Courts his stay by giving her Kings their full Authority all the Priviledges Prerogatives and Preheminences belonging to them in this that is the Church of England the King is declared Supream not only in Temporal but in all Causes Ecclesiastical superintends Religion as well as Civil Rights governs the Clergy chuses the Bishops convenes them when he sees cause to make Canons Constitutions Authorises Impowers them to consult debate to order conduct the Circumstances of Religion the Essentials of it being determined by God in Scripture what they agree upon he doth at their humble Petition if he approve of them by his Royal Edict confirm or pass into Laws Ecclesiastical and when they have effected what he called them together for he dismisses or dissolves the assembly Here the Kings Power within his Realms and Dominions is affirm'd and declared to be the Highest Power under God Canon 1 of the Canons Anno 1603. to whom all Men as well Inhabitants as born within the same do by Gods Laws owe most Loyalty and Obedience And whosoever shall deny or oppose the Royal Supremacy is to be Excommunicated Canon 2. ipso facto and not to be restored but only by the Arch-Bishop after his Repentance and publick Revocation of those his Wicked Errours So that they must be blind or wilfully shut their Eyes that do not see a vast difference in this great affair between ours and the Church of Rome in this the Pope is Supream Governour in all causes and over all Persons Ecclesiastical nay in Temporal too so far as they concern Religion in that our Church I mean she Supremacy is given intirely to our Kings whose Power is expresly declared to be the highest under God and their Authority extended to all Persons as well Clergy as People and to all causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal In the Church of Rome if the Prince claim the Supremacy which belongs to him by Divine Right he is Reputed and Treated as an Heretick that is Excommunicated and Deposed and if any of his Subjects dare to assert and openly maintain his Supremacy as in Duty and Conscience they are bound to do because it is their Princes undoubted Right they are Condemn'd to Dye and Adjudg'd Guilty of such a Crime as cannot be purged but by casting them into the Fire In our Church all the Clergy are requir'd to the uttermost of Canon 1. their Wit Knowledg and Learning purely and sincerely without any colour or dissimulation to teach manifest open and declare four times at least every Year That all Usurped and Forreign Power forasmuch as the same hath no Establishment nor Ground by the Law of God is for most just Causes taken away and abolish'd and that therefore no manner of Obedience and Subjection within His Majesties Realms and Dominions is due unto any such Forreign Power but that the King is Supream Governour Canon 55. in all his Realms and Dominions in all causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal Or as it is express'd in the excellent Canons of the Year 1640 A Supream Power is Canon 1. given to this most excellent Order that is of Kings by God himself in Scripture which is that Kings should Rule and Command in their several Dominions all Persons of what Ranks or Estates soever whether Ecclesiastical or Civil and that they should restrain and punish with the Temporal Sword all stubborn and wicked doers The Care of Gods Church is so committed to Kings in Scripture that they are commended when the Church keeps the right way and taxed when it runs amiss and therefore her Government belongs in chief unto Kings for otherwise one Man would be commended for anothers Care and taxed for anothers Negligence which is not Gods way And if any of our Clergy or Laity dare to impugn or oppose the Royal Supremacy they are Anathematiz'd or decreed to be Excommunicated which is the greatest Punishment the Church can inflict and the most dreadful one any Man can suffer in this World 'T is most apparent then that our Church gives and secures to the Crown that great and most precious Jewel the Supremacy which is the chief Glory and Ornament of it which the Church of Rome so unjustly steals from and Robs it of Here the Prince hath no Rival nor Competitor none to insult or Domineer over him as in the Romish Communion no Lord at all over him but the great Governour of all the World God Almighty to whom it is his Glory as well as Duty to be Subject and submit himself in all things And as our Church doth not diminish or lessen the Power of her Kings so it is so far from pretending any Jurisdiction or coercive Authority over them that it abhors and detests it declares it to be Treason both against God and the King for any to claim or challenge such Authority over them For any Person or Persons to set up maintain or a vow in any their said Realms or Territories Canons of 1640. Canon 1. respectively under any pretence whatsoever any Independent Coactive Power either Papal or Popular whether directly or indirectly is to
not from a Total Destitution or Want but from weakness of Grace they may be Slips and Frailties not wilful or deliberate Crimes though they sometimes ensnare and surprise him yet the Man may heartily Abhor Repent of and Strive against them be earnestly Labouring after that habitual Holiness and proficiency in Piety and Vertue that will in time render him Victorious over all Sin and Wickedness What horrid Injury is it then to such a Child of God as this that heartily Loves his Heavenly Father and sincerely endeavours to do his Will to Condemn him as a Reprobate and as such to deprive him of all the Possessions he hath upon Earth So that if any Sect or Society of Men had Power to Elect such a Judg or Officer unless when they have chose they can make him Infallible or give him Unerring that is Infinite Wisdom still they would be never the better because he could not Execute his Office without committing the grossest most mischievous and pernicious Errours and Mistakes without passing such Sentences as will Condemn and Ruine the Innocent and on the other side Justifie and Enrich the Guilty and the Wicked I know indeed that those two great Rivals who claim a Right of Judging in the Case that is the Pope and Presbytery do both pretend to be Infallible the first Directly or in Express words the other by Consequence As for the Pope he professes to have an Infallible or Unerring Judgment in all Cases and the Presbytery say they have the Spirit which is to say the same thing his Holiness doth though in other Terms Now here being two Parties contending for this Judicature and both of them for the due managing of it pretending to be Infallible and neither of them willing to quit their Claim or Title or to resign it to the other the Question is Which of them must be acknowledged Judg in the Case The Presbytery are Evidently the Younger and but of Yesterday in compare with the other for the Pope will plead that several General Councils have own'd and asserted him to be the supreme Judg upon Earth in all Causes belonging to Religion but the Presbytery can alledg no such thing never had any Council to declare for them unless they will be so Presumptuous as to call the sneaking Synod of Dort so And therefore till one of these Pretenders Renounce his claim there can be no supreme or sole Judg in the Case and to place this Judicature in them both would make mad work because the Pope hath adjudged the Presbytery to be Hereticks and therefore void of Grace and consequently such as have no Right to Judg in the Case And the Presbytery on the other side call the Pope Antichrist and Man of Sin and the Church of Rome over which he presides the Great Whore the Whore of Babylon and therefore not only fallen from but past all Grace And those whom he declares to be Saints and good Catholicks they pronounce to be Reprobates or Sinners of the first Magnitude Those also whom he calls Hereticks and Anathematizes as the most Flagitious Criminals upon Earth they admire and cry up as the Peculiar People Dear Children of God So that if the Accusations and Indictments they prefer one against another be true they are both such Impious Graceless Persons that they are not capable of being Judges in the Case and the gross and abominable Errours both of them are so Notoriously Guilty of Shame and Prove the Infallibility they both lay claim to to be a most insolent and lying Pretence And being neither taught in Scripture nor Practicable in it self this Principle must needs be false and the Invention of Cheats who say as the Gnosticks did of old That Gain is Godliness If Christ had founded Dominion in Grace he would have inserted this degree amongst his other Laws which his Blessed Apostles have Transmitted to us in their inspired Writings but there is no mention of any such thing and he having not so founded it no Authority upon Earth can do it And because he took Care by his Strict and Excellent precepts of Justice to preserve and secure Mens Rights and Properties as they can be none of his Disciples that Violate and Invade them so upon what Pretence soever they do it they must expect the dreadful Punishment which his Laws Denounce against the Unjust the Oppressours and therefore I conclude That Dominion is not Bp. Taylor Ductor Dubi p. 543. founded in Grace but as a Reverend Person Observes in Law and Labour in Succession and Purchase And if Dominion be not founded in Grace then a Christian may Err in Practice that is do some Evil things and not forfeit his Temporal Right or Property be it Ordinary or Extraordinary a Right to a private Estate or as this under debate to succeed to the Royal Dignity The next Inquiry then must be what Errours in Practice Forfeit a Mans Right These must in Subsect 2. Reason be such as are Repugnant to and open Violation of some great Design or Intention of his Being but no Man was Born for himself alone but for the publick good and to be serviceable to Humane Society of which he is a part or Member which he is obliged to promote with all his Care and Industry and to Contribute his Endeavours to the Preservation of For the Effecting of which these three things as the Learned and Excellent Bishop Sanderson observes are absolutely necessary The Defending our Country against Forreign Force and Invasion The Administration of Distributive Justice that the Good be Protected and Rewarded the Evil and Unjust Punish'd according to the Laws Care of Commutative Justice of Trade Praelectio Quinta Sect 19. or Commerce and all kind of Contracts the welfare and safety of Mankind being so concern'd in these things that unless they be secured they must needs be involved in Misery and Ruin for all places will be fill'd with Thefts Murders Frauds and Injuries and the Lives and Estates of the most Innocent Persons be exposed to the Avarice and Cruelty of the Great or Mighty The Crimes therefore that Forfeit a Mans Right must be such as are Destructive of Humane Society which are Thefts Murders and Treasons But then he that commits these or any of them doth by our Laws Forfeit his Life as well as Estate the Royal Clemency indeed may if it sees Cause Pardon those that Commit these great Offences which Pardon Restores them intirely to all they had Forfeited but without that they are Dead and Deprived of all their Possessions by Law It being Just that he who steals another Mans Goods should loose his own that he who will not let his Neighbour Live to Enjoy his Estate should Forfeit both his Life and Estate and that he or they who attempt any thing against the Sacred and most Precious Life of their Prince be not only Punish'd as the highest Malefactors by a Death peculiar to such execrable Criminals